Democratic election officials plan crisis scenarios ahead of midterms

WASHINGTON (AP) — Aggressive immigration enforcement in Minnesota, which resulted in the shooting deaths of two U.S. citizens by federal agents, and this week’s FBI search of the election office in Georgia’s most populous county have Democratic election officials concerned about what could be in store for this fall’s midterm elections.

During an annual gathering of state election officials on Thursday, several Democratic secretaries of state said they had begun planning for a range of ways the Trump administration might seek to interfere with voting or how they run elections. Immigration agents near polling places or attempts to seize voting equipment are among the concerns, they said.

“It’s no longer just about making sure everyone gets their ballots and those ballots are counted securely. There’s now an election security component that involves this type of scenario planning, also in response to the fact that the Trump administration, very clearly, is planting seeds to potentially interfere in our elections in the future,” said Michigan Secretary of State Jocelyn Benson, a Democrat who is running for governor.

Those officials said they are increasing their preparations for potential steps the Trump administration could take following Thursday’s search of the Atlanta-area election center, in which federal agents took ballots and other records related to the 2020 election. The FBI search renewed President Donald Trump’s longstanding grievances over the 2020 presidential election, which he falsely claims was marred by widespread fraud.

Benson said her office is planning for various crisis scenarios with officials across the state, training that now includes the possibility of bomb threats and U.S. Immigration and Customs Enforcement agents appearing at polling places.

“This is how we deter, this is how we mitigate, this is when we go to court, this is when we need law enforcement to show up and help us protect, this is when we don’t,” Benson said of her instructions to local election officials.

Colorado Secretary of State Jena Griswold is preparing for this year’s midterm elections by revamping previous years’ contingency plans and running disaster simulations with the state’s governor, attorney general and county clerks.

In an interview ahead of the conference, she said one of the most worrisome changes under the Trump administration has been its dismantling of efforts to track election interference and foreign meddling.

She also worried about whether the Trump administration would make changes through the U.S. Postal Service, which already has taken some steps that concern officials in states that rely heavily on mail ballots.

The White House did not immediately respond to a request to comment on the election officials’ concerns.

Trump has made his interest in overhauling elections clear since early in his second term, signing a wide-ranging executive order that has been largely halted by the courts. The Constitution gives states and, to an extent, Congress authority over elections.

Recently, administration officials connected the president’s deportation agenda to election administration, an unusual move that alarmed democracy advocates.

Attorney General Pam Bondi recently wrote to Minnesota Gov. Tim Walz, a Democrat, urging him to share the state’s voter rolls as part of a way to “help bring back law and order” in the state, which has seen widespread protests over increased immigration enforcement and the deadly shootings by federal immigration agents.

The Justice Department has filed lawsuits against at least 23 states and the District of Columbia seeking detailed voter information that includes names, dates of birth, residential addresses, driver’s license numbers and partial Social Security numbers. State election officials who have resisted, most of them Democrats, have said the request violates state and federal privacy laws.

“That idea of using police force to push policy is un-American,” Griswold said.

Maine Secretary of State Shenna Bellows said federal law will be on the side of the states to constrain the most extraordinary conduct, especially if armed federal agents show up around polling places.

“That won’t be a hard case,” she said.

But she is worried the show of force by immigration officers, arrests and deportations in various cities might deter some people from going out to cast a ballot.

“If people are too afraid to leave their homes to go get groceries, they’re going to be too afraid to go vote if ICE or other federal agents are patrolling the streets,” Bellows said.

Scenes of violent arrests by ICE agents and protests on the streets of American cities over the last year also have raised concerns among lawmakers in Congress about how the administration’s aggressive approach to law enforcement might collide with the midterm elections.

“I don’t want roving gangs of ICE showing up at polling stations. That would obviously intimidate voters,” said Sen. Mark Warner, a Virginia Democrat.

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Associated Press writer Ali Swenson in New York contributed to this report.